Anxiety, Depression May Increase Risk of Death From Certain Cancers

Higher death rates seen for colorectal, esophageal, pancreatic, and prostate cancers, leukemia.

HealthDay News — Anxiety and depression may increase the risk of death from certain cancers, according to research published online in BMJ.

G. David Batty, PhD, of the University College London, and colleagues reviewed 16 English and Scottish studies that included 163,363 people, aged 16 and older. The people were initially cancer-free and followed for an average of 9.5 years. During that time, there were 4,353 deaths from cancer.

The researchers found that patients with greater levels of psychological distress had higher mortality rates for colorectal, esophageal, pancreatic, and prostate cancers and leukemia. The team said the findings held up even after compensating for factors such as age, sex, education, wealth, body fat, smoking, and alcohol use.

"Our findings contribute to the evidence that poor mental health might have some predictive capacity for certain physical diseases, but we are a long way off from knowing if these relationships are truly causal," Batty said.